Jazz Age

Also helpful would have been more context to explain “It,” as the word has been used since the Jazz Age to anoint certain young women who have mysterious but undeniable charisma.

Controversy at the Smithsonian, a Jazz Age caper from Thomas Pynchon, Rome’s long history and more.

Controversy at the Smithsonian, a Jazz Age caper from Thomas Pynchon, Rome’s long history and more.

“Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood,” by Fatima Shaik, provides a fascinating look at the city from the slavery era through the Jazz Age.

The staging, which can seem cluttered and breathless in the early going, traipses through these seedy locales with a theatrical swiftness that captures the milieu that bred the syncopated rhythm of the Jazz Age.